Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill (1900-1950), born into a religious Jewish family in Dessau, Germany, had a musical childhood before travelling to further his skills in Berlin. Beginning his career in the early 1920’s, and with his first opera, The Protagonist (with famed German dramatist Georg Kasier) performed in April 1926, he quickly became an established young composer. It was his musical theatre works with Bertolt Brecht (The Threepenny Opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny (1930) that brought him wider fame. During this time, he married the famous German actress and singer, Lotte Lenya, who played Jenny in the original 1928 production of The Threepenny Opera.

After fleeing the Nazi leadership in March 1933, he continued to his career first in Paris, and then in the US. During the American years, he worked with many notable collaborators; Ira Gershwin, Elmer Rice, a Pulitzer Prize winning American Expressionist playwright, and Maxwell Anderson, a famed playwright and lyricist. Weill was in the process of working on a musical adaptation of Huckleberry Finn with Anderson when he died in 1950.

He will be remembered for his sense of social justice, pursuing and attaining highly regarded playwrights and lyricists and collaborators, and his adaptability to audience tastes regardless of his country of residence.

Some research questions for teachers and students

• How did Weill’s musical style contribute to the success of Brecht’s burgeoning ‘Epic Theatre’ in The Threepenny Opera?
• What sort of experience did Weill have working with Brecht? Was it a happy partnership?